𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

III

Turns out, taking off in a random direction was a bad idea, because you had no clue where you were.

Ariel was panting beside you, for an angel he had shit stamina, and you spun around, narrowing your eyes at the trees.

You could feel Ariel's incredulous stare. "What…  in the world… are you doing?" He managed to get out through his gasps for air.

"I'm trying to see if there's anything I recognize, but I was never one for exploring so I have no sense of navigation right now."

It was true. Exploration has always been incredibly boring to you, only forcing yourself to do it occasionally when you had too. You were drawn in by the intriguing story and characters, not by the idea of running around a grassy plane for two hours to raise your percentage by three.

"I suppose we'll just have to follow the water to civilization. Survival rule number one!"

"What water? We're not even close to any water!" The exasperation was palpable.

"We'll just have to find water then!"

Ariel threw his hands in the air (like he just didn't care). "Sure! Let's keep walking in another random direction for the next hour to find water!"

"You know," you turned to him. "You're rather negative for an angel. I thought y'all were supposed to be a lot more positive."

"You thought wrong."

You huffed, crossing your arms. "Well why don't you just use your wings then smartass?"

Ariel paused, his eyes widening in what you could only assume was embarrassed realization.

"Did you forget you had wings?"

"Shut up." He spread his wings, ignoring the light blush in his pale cheeks. His wings looked so breakable you almost thought they would snap as soon as he attempted to fly. Nothing of the sort happened and Ariel launched into the air.

You had to cover your eyes to see him past the glaring sun, but you managed to spot his figure hovering in the sky. He twisted in the air, spinning gracefully as he looked for any sign of life. You supposed he managed to spot it because he descended rather fast, a giddy smile on his face.

"You look happy."

Ariel nodded enthusiastically. "There's a city not too far from here. Surprisingly, we were going in a close enough direction. Now we can finally get out of this heat!"

"You're not even sweating."

"It's still hot!"

You chuckled. The two of you began making your way in the direction Ariel corrected. The kind of trees had not changed from the clearing, so you assumed you were still in the same country.

You hoped you were headed towards Mondstadt. Inazuma, Liyue, and Sumeru were all very cool and really pretty but Mondstadt always felt like 'home' weirdly enough. At the very least, you always went back there to collect commissions and to use the alchemy table.

It was something about the more simplistic and smaller scale compared to other countries. It really gave off the vibe of 'everybody knows everybody' and the initial bias might've played a role in the liking as well.

But Mondstadt was also the country most likely to not ask any questions about your clothing or where you were from or what you wanted. You didn't really feel like dealing with the existential crisis that would probably ensue if you had to explain that these people were just entertainment for others, that all the suffering they went through was meant to give depth to their character and make them more enjoyable.